TIFF 13:Did Steve Mc Queen's ,12 Years A Slave Just Change the Game? : L A Times.

[Stuart G]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-tiff-12-years-a-slave-michael-fassbender-20130907,0,1493185.story


By Steven Zeitchik
September 7, 2013, 7:00 a.m.



TORONTO -- Brad Pitt didn't say much during the question-and-answer session that followed the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of "12 Years a Slave" Friday night, just a short comment on why he produced and co-starred in the Steve McQueen period drama.

But, like his turn as an abolitionist-minded maverick amid a group of brutal slaveowners, Pitt spoke volumes as he stood on the stage with cast and filmmakers. "If I never get to participate in a film again," he said, his voice trailing off as if to imply this would be enough, "this is it for me," he finally finished.

It's a sentiment you could imagine the lead cast members -- Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o and of course Chiwetel Eijiofor, standing out amid the standouts -- sharing with Pitt. And it's a sentiment you could imagine the audience feeling. Festivals come and go; movies rise and fade. But once in a great while there's a film that feels almost instantly, in the room, like it's going to endure, and change plenty of things along the way. And "12 Years" offers that feeling.

Most narrowly, that’s true on Oscar level. By 9 p.m. Friday night, just six days into September, the film had already become a top contender for various acting, writing and directing prizes, as well as the big prize. You could say that’s premature. But you probably wouldn’t if you sat in the room. (Vulture's Kyle Buchanan certainly didn't hold back.) It's equally true on a social level. “12 Years” tells the fact-based story of Solomon Northup (Eijiofor), a free man who in 1841 was kidnapped and sold into slavery, and his travails -- at once horrifying and surprising, no matter how much you think you're ready for them -- when he is trafficked to a series of Southern plantations for more than a decade.